Jammu and Kashmir’s Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh addressing a press conference here on Wednesday said that the region is very close to restoring complete normalcy.
“We are very close to normalcy. If you take the entire region into account, All 10 districts of Jammu have become entirely normal, all school, colleges, and offices are open. Leh and Kargil are also normal, there is no restriction of any kind there,” he said.
“In this region, we have tried to ease out the restriction, of whichever kind, that was imposed. More than 90 per cent areas are free of restrictions, 100% telephone exchanges are working now. You have got two districts where the cellphones are also working now”, he added.
The DGP confirmed that civilian casualties have been nil due to minimal use of force by security personnel barring the incident where a stone pelter was injured in down-town and he subsequently succumbed to his injuries.
“On the contrary, we have had incidents where stone-pelters caused injuries to the civilians and also caused civilian death in Bhijbhera,” he said referring to the truck driver being killed by stone- pelters.
DGP mentioned that during this period, terrorists killed three people while two terrorists have been killed by security forces.
Talking about the incident where a 30-month-old baby in Sopore was injured and the killing of two Gujjar brothers in Pulwama by terrorists, Singh stressed that the terrorists want to create an atmosphere of fear in the valley.
However, talking about the encounter of Asif Maqbool Bhatt, the LeT terrorist who was responsible for injuring the baby in Sopore, he said: “With his killing, I believe the area will heave a sigh of relief and the terror which he was creating there would be taken care of to some extent. We also know two of his other associates. We are after them and we will see that in the near future, we take care of them also.”
The DGP said terrorists have been going around in South Kashmir and threatening people by putting up posters. He hoped that they will be able to neutralise the threats in South Kashmir region.
Yesterday DGP had confirmed that Pakistan sponsored terrorist organisations have been forcing the residents to not follow their daily chores. Singh had said that terrorist organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen have been coercing the people by forcing them to shut down shops and petrol pumps. “But pumps are open and we have ensured that shops are open wherever people want to open them,” he added.
Moreover, speaking about the restrictions imposed in the state in the aftermath of revoking Article 370, Singh today said that since people have been very-very cooperative, J&K police are considering some more relaxations in the Valley. He said that though they realise that such restrictions cause inconvenience to the people it has only been done to prevent Pakistan sponsored terrorist to resort to fake propaganda which they have been resorting to through various social media platforms.
As per the latest reports in Jammu and Kashmir, all telephone exchanges have been activated and all landline connections have been restored. In Kupwara district, post-paid mobiles networks have all been activated. All mobile numbers of government officials providing essential services have been activated too.
Jammu & Kashmir: All exchanges activated and all the landlines stand restored. Post paid mobiles have been restored in Kupwara district. Further, mobile numbers of officials belonging to essential services and other offices have also been restored.
— ANI (@ANI) September 11, 2019
NSA Ajit Doval had also recently confirmed that Jammu and Kashmir is gradually moving back to normalcy. But had urged that people should refrain from taking one or two incidents as public opinion and stay away from false news and propaganda which is being peddled by Pakistan to carry its agenda.
